Lots of people are quitting Facebook for 99 days this year – and most of them feel happier

Forget Dry January, people are trying to quit something much harder than booze this January – Facebook.

The 99 Days project has seen its number of quitters triple this month – and its founder says that most people feel ‘happier’ after doing so.

Around a quarter of people who manage to quit Facebook for the full 99 days also quit for good, according to Merijn Straathof (the man behind 99 Days).

Data from the project will be used in university research projects at Leiden University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to work out why some people find Facebook so addictive – and what happens when you quit.

Forget Dry January, people are trying to quit something much harder than booze this January – Facebook.

The 99 Days project has seen its number of quitters triple this month – and its founder says that most people feel ‘happier’ after doing so.

Around a quarter of people who manage to quit Facebook for the full 99 days also quit for good, according to Merijn Straathof (the man behind 99 Days).

Data from the project will be used in university research projects at Leiden University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to work out why some people find Facebook so addictive – and what happens when you quit.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Straathof says, ‘We’re not saying everyone should. But for us the idea of not using Facebook was a very fascinating one. I stopped when we started the project and haven’t returned since. Like many others that have participated I felt liberated.

‘I found myself complaining that I had little time to do the things I wanted to do. But I hadn’t realised until then that I was spending so much time looking at what other people were doing.

Straathof says that people who give up mostly say they feel happier – and almost everyone says they have more time.

Straathof says, ‘More time is a pretty consistent theme reported by participants. In many cases, people cite specific activities on which they spend their newly found time, such as reading books or hanging out with friends in person.

‘People also often describe the feeling that they are missing out on something or a fear that they might be missing out on something. A subset of these responses go on to say that they later peeked on Facebook and it turned out that they hadn’t actually missed anything, or that anything that was terribly important was communicated to them via other channels.

‘Our surveys show that most of the people feel slightly happier after the experiment. A significant amount also claims to be ‘much happier’ without Facebook.

‘We do have to say that this is hard to tell exactly, since a lot of the people that return to Facebook also stop filling in the surveys. From the people that finish the 99 days about 25% says they will not return to Facebook.

Facebook Messenger could be recording you with your own camera, taking photos and sending texts without your permission

Facebook has become such a familiar household name that when many of us were forced into downloading the messenger app onto our phones, we didn’t think to check out the terms and conditions.‘It’s Facebook,’ we might have thought. ‘If they were going to do anything weird and out there the media would have reported it straight away.’

Except we didn’t… well, not until a billion people had already downloaded the social media app.

One savvy Facebook user, Sam Fiorella, decided he would delve into the T&Cs, and what he found is pretty damn terrifying.

Just some of the terms and conditions for the new Facebook app (Picture: HuffingtonPost/Facebook)

Apparently, Facebook can take photos, send texts and even record calls, all without your permission. Meaning you’ll have no control over what it’s doing behind the scenes whatsoever.

Even weirder, and perhaps even more unsettling, is that they can read personal data on your phone about both yourself and your contacts, and then pass the info on.

Bit scary, huh?

It’s worth noting that many apps contain Ts&Cs like these, but rarely, if ever, have a need to use them.

Still, Sam shared a list of the worst offending Ts&Cs and, while there is the ability to fiddle around yourself to some extent with the security settings, it’s still slightly sinister.

Do you ever wonder the effect social media has had on you? Ever wondered what effect social media will have on your future or your kids? Have you been infected by the facebook virus? Or are you addicted to twitter and instagram? Can you imaging your life without social media?

After 5 very fun months and hard work we have finally hit 1000 subscribers. A huge thank you to Epic Lloyd and Nice Peter aka Epic Rap Battles Of History for subscribing to out channel as it sky rocketed the subscriber growth rate and added nearly 300 subscribers in 4 days 🙂
LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE TO FACEBOOK & SUBSCRIBE

Note :
All my videos are made with a tongue firmly wedged into my cheek. I am here to make funny vlogs, funny movie reviews. funny rants, and add a funny spin on any topical news stories. I am always looking to collaborate with any fellow YouTubers so please contact me via YouTube messaging. These could be shout outs of cross promotion and I am open to any ideas so message me for anything and we can chat.

Any movie/film reviews labelled with #DNMC, #SFMC, #SFNMC are for the SourceFedNerd Movie Club, SourceFed Movie Club or The Philip Defranco Show Movie Club. However any films in the cinema I am reviewing out my own free will.

I am always open for ideas for new vlogs so comment down below or message me.

Is it me or do we have a Hallmark Card for everything these days? There is soooo many holidays now that if you was to adhere to them al them you’d never work. Its like Hallmark makes up these ideas just to make a card for it. Do we have too many holidays? Is there too many hallmark holiday cards? How many hallmark holidays do you have?

Most people make New Year Resolutions. These are those little New Year Promises you make yourself. I want to lose weight, i want to be healthier etc etc But are these your new years resolution?

Always promised myself I would write a letter – Why dont you do the same?

2014 New Years Resolution 1 – Weigh Less / Be More active
2014 New Years Resolution 2 – Keep learning new skills
2014 New Years Resolution 3 – Keep learning new recipies
2014 New Years Resolution 4 – Worry Less / Overthinking

One I need your help with..
2014 New Years Resolution 5 – 5000 subs for xmas

I dont do many personal Alan vlogs. 2013 is coming to a close and so I thought I would do a year-in-review type vlog chatting and rambling my way through 2013, my life and my general experiences.

2013 has been a roller-coaster for me personally. Sadly 2013 didnt start off too well but my friends where there to help me and pick me up and make me smile. 2013 had many surprises and experiences. Download 2013 was amazing and I made some wonderful friends.

2013 was also the year I started to vlog. YouTube has helped me accept myself for who I am and helped me grow my confidence a little. I would like to thank everyone that’s been there for me in 2013 and I wish them all the best for 2014.

That’s right I have finally got around to doing a Q&A. This Q&A was inspired by Emma Blackery’s #ASKEMMA series. I am tempted to do one of these monthly if you guys and gals like it. Submit questions. What questions would you like to get answers for?

These Questions and Answers were submitted via my facebook, twitter and google accounts. So what do you want to know about me? Hopefully Ask Alan #AskAlan will be a regular thing.

If you watch SourceFed is like a 1 man #tabletalk, but table talk with just me 🙂

The words of Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell – Anchorman 2) are unlikely to instil confidence in most train passengers.

But if you hear an announcement from (Ron Burgundy) the Anchorman 2 star while travelling on a Virgin Train next week, don’t be alarmed — he hasn’t commandeered the vehicle.

The messages from Anchorman 2’s Ron Burgundy on Virgin Train services are part of the publicity drive for the upcoming comedy sequel Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues starring Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.

Virgin announced the link up with Anchorman 2, Ron Burgundy and Will Ferrell on its Facebook page to the delight of several Virgin Train customers who were looking forward to hearing the messages.

The company wrote: ‘Well, Hellooooo, Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy, who has a voice that can make wolverine purr… has recorded special announcements to bring a bit of humour to your journey onboard. The “toilet” one is not to be missed!’

Ferrell has previously hosted a real news programme as Burgundy and also supposedly posted a photo of himself on Reddit to promote the new film.

Will Ferrell will also be hosting the British Comedy Awards this week.

Do you have the NEIGHBOUR FROM HELL? Nightmare Neighbours? My neighbours are loud neighbours, messy neighbours, nosey neighbours, they are part of the neighbourhood watch for power trips. They are naggy neighbours and frankly have all the reasons to hate your neighbours. Its not just good neighbours and bad neighbours and no not the Aussie soap neighbours I mean the people next door. Its not like i can even hack their wifi to make up for it, sometimes I wish they was dead neighbours lol

Some YouTubers are not pleased about being forced onto Google+ for commenting, and one girl took a stand in the cutest, most profane way imaginable. “You ruined our site and called it integration / I’m writing this song just to vent our frustration / Fuck you, Google Plusssssss!”

Personally, I think the shift to Google+ comments is a huge win. It will greatly discourage bullying and trolling, turning a cesspool into civil discussion. It will also let YouTube rank comments by popularity, and show you the most relevant ones from friends and celebrities.

But change is tough, especially for emotional kids. Remember “Students Against Facebook News Feed”? 750,000 people, or nearly 10% of Facebook’s user base at the time, protested the launch of the feature in 2006. Now it’s one of the most popular pieces of the Internet and the key to Facebook’s addictive nature.

YouTube has had its own commenting system since forever. It’s basic, and has become a haven for homophobia and racism, but some people just don’t want to adapt to something new.

Emma Blackery has some good points about the forced transition and other troubles in YouTubeland.

Please download this video and keep a copy of it somewhere! Just in case 😉 lyrics and chords below! – Original Video –

Lyrics:

Woke up this morning and checked my Twitter
Went onto Facebook and moaned about the weather
And then I checked my friends’ updates on Google plus
Wait, no I didn’t, cos it sucks

So how do they make their investment back?
Well they took YouTube and fucked it in the ass
Leave us alone, we just want to make videos

Well we just want our website back
Why is that so hard to understand?

Fuck you, Google Plus
We don’t want your fucking fuss
You’ve ruined our site and called it integration
I’m writing this song to vent our frustration
Fuck you, Google Plus
Your website can get fucked
If it was gonna ‘work’ it would’ve happened by now
Maybe ask Yahoo to fix it somehow?

See Google you’re just bad at web design
Well I’d suggest trying to Google it sometime
Then there’s the suggestion they don’t wanna hear
Can you please fix the sub box that you fucked up last year?

Fuck you, Google Plus
We don’t want your fucking fuss
You’ve ruined our site and called it integration
I’m writing this song to vent our frustration
Fuck you, Google Plus
Your website can get fucked
If it was gonna ‘work’ it would’ve happened by now
Maybe Vimeo could fix it somehow?

If you liked this video then please subscribe
Don’t forget to give plus one if you enjoyed
We just want a working website back
Why is that so hard to understand?

Fuck you, Google Plus
We don’t want your fucking fuss
You’ve ruined our site and called it integration
I’m writing this song to vent our frustration
Fuck you google Plus
Your website’s fucked us up

Now nobody gets videos they subscribed for
Video responses are dead in the water
You can’t leave comments unless you’re linked up
Can you please listen to us?
Fuck you, Google Plus

Note :
All my videos are made with a tongue firmly wedged into my cheek. I am here to make funny vlogs, funny movie reviews. funny rants, and add a funny spin on any topical news stories. I am always looking to collaborate with any fellow YouTubers so please contact me via YouTube messaging. These could be shout outs of cross promotion and I am open to any ideas so message me for anything and we can chat.

Any movie/film reviews labelled with #DNMC, #SFMC, #SFNMC are for the SourceFedNerd Movie Club, SourceFed Movie Club or The Philip Defranco Show Movie Club. However any films in the cinema I am reviewing out my own free will.

I am always open for ideas for new vlogs so comment down below or message me.